sight to the memorial of the victims. for the first time, the ceremony will not include a public speech by politicians. moments of silence will mark the moment the planes struck the twin towers and the pentagon and when a flight crashed in a field near shanksville, pennsylvania. they will pause when the south and north towers fell. good morning. i'm willie geist. this is "way too early." president obama will attend a wreath laying at the pentagon and joe biden welcomes the passengers and terrorists who welcomed the field. they will start construction of the september 11th museum. the stand off involved a private charity headed by mayor bloomburg and the port authority of new york and new jersey which

owns the world trade center sight. under the deal, ownership of the land is transferred to the foundati foundation. mayor bloomburg talked about the agreement yesterday. >> we are going build a museum that is important to the families of the 9/11 victims and to all of those who contributed photos and moe mentos and trying to preserve the memory of those that they loved that are no longer here. >> construction on the museum should resume by the end of the month. it's unclear when it should be completed. a piece in the new york times reports new information about what president bush and his administration were told by intelligence agencies in the months leading up to 9/11. according to vanity fair, the former president was warned directly about the possibility of an al qaeda attack as early as may 1, 2001.

it's titled bin laden determined to strike in the u.s. those warnings included reports of a bin laden terror cell present in the united states at that point. he claims white house officials were dismissive of the information. he writes some of the administration considered the warning to be bluster. an intelligence official told me in interviews the neoconservative leaders were warning the white house that the cia had been fooled. according to this theory, bin laden was planning an attack to distract them from saddam hussein who they saw as a greater threat. intelligence officials protested the idea of bin laden conspireing with mr. hussein saying it was ridiculous. the neoconservative suspicions were carrying the day. the cia prepared an analysis to

accept the danger from bin laden was real. that exert in the new york times. he'll join us on "morning joe" to talk about this piece and his book, "500 days." we'll ask how he came across this and how it stacked up against other terror warnings that came across the president's desk at that time. we were reminded on the eveover 9/11 that terrorist continues. al qaeda's number two leader in yemen was killed in an air strike. saeed al-shiri died when their vehicle was hit by a missile. he was in prison for six years at guantanamo bay. he was involved in the failed underwear bomb plot on christmas day. the violence raged.

four rockets destroyed a nato helicopter. three afghan personnel were killed and nato troops injured. this is a day after the u.s. turned over control to the prison and taliban inmates to afghan authorities. to domestic politics. president obama and mitt romney temporarily suspending their campaigns and halt political ads out of respect for the 9/11 anniversary. this is a glimpse into the public reaction. a cnn poll shows the president leading 52 to 46 among likely voters. the same poll showed the candidates tied at 48%. however, a new abc news/washington post poll shows the president and romney is a tie among voters. should be noted, the president holds a six point lead among

registered voters. romney campaign has been attacking his record, are you better off now than four years ago? 20% say they are better off. nearly half, 47% say their situation is about the same with 32% saying they are worse off under president barack obama. however, when asked hypothetically if romney had been president instead of president obama, the answer remained the same. 24% think they would have been better off under romney. 38% the same, 28% say they would be better off. mitt romney was campaigning in ohio after being criticized for not mentioning afghanistan in his convention acceptance speech. he wondered why the president made no mention of unemployment in his speech. >> i was surprised at the president's speech. he didn't mention unemployment. he didn't mention 47 million people on food stamps. by the way, that's a record

number. not a good record. when he took office, 32 million people were on food stamps. now 47 million. he does not have a plan. his idea is that obama care and a stimulus are all we need. i don't want obama care or a stimulus like the last one. he went on with his campaign slogan. you know what it is. forward. forward is his campaign's slogan. i think forewarned is a better term. >> mitt romney capitalized on a flood made at the democratic convention and to boos from the delegate tried to amend to reinsert the phrase, god given. romney promised to keep god in. >> i honor my promises. one of those promises was the one that i made and the ones i made in the pledge of allegiance. i believe it's important to have a president and i will be a president, if elected, that honor that is pledge and all the

pledges i make. that pledge says that we are a nation under god. if i'm president of the united states, when and if i become president of the united states, i will not take god out of my heart or out of the public scare and i will not take it under the platform of my party. >> paul ryan returned to washington taking a short break from the campaign to vote on a house spending bill. his first appearance in congress since he was named running mate a month ago. chicago public teachers are hours away from starting their second day on strike. no progress has been made on the most contentious issues like teacher evaluation and job security. yesterday, thousands of teachers marched city hall, filling the streets and stopping traffic while the parents of 350,000 students will have to figure out

alternatives for their kids. mayor rahm emanuel at the center of the dispute, it's becoming political. romney attacked the president for what's happening in his home city. teachers unions made their interests conflict. today, we are seeing one of the clearest examples yet. i choose to side with the parents and children to give them the skills to succeed. it's a statement from mitt romney. chicago mayor rahm emanuel says he's not concerned about political theater. >> i appreciate his lip service, what really counts is what we are doing here. i don't really give two hoots about national comments, scoring political points or trying to embarrass the president. >> he called it a choice.

the white house says president obama has not taken a stance on the strike accusing romney of trying to capitalize on a local matter. the strike goes on. apple is set to make a major announcement wednesday. many analysts believe it will signal the arrival of the iphone 5. smartphones $75 billion in sales. computers make up 15%. let's look at the markets. jeff is live in london. jeff, a new iphone could be huge for apple but also this united states economy. >> oh, absolutely. you know, the anticipation is building to this announcement in san francisco. 10:00 a.m. local time tomorrow. everybody is excited because it will be good news for carriers like at&t and verizon wireless. there's a piece of research out suggesting if they manage to shift 8 million of these phones

through the remaining part of the year, we could see at least a.25 or .50 contribution to u.s. gdp. that would be quite something. there are a few clouds around the launch. one is on labor issues. whether they are using intern students to build these iphones. that's just one of those other stories out there that may be taking the gloss off the big launch announcement tomorrow. we are all looking forward to find out what the new iphone 5 looks like. back to you. >> we'll keep an eye on it. still ahead on "way too early" the legend of the 9/11 surfer. reports on the days, weeks and years of a man inside one of the fallen towers who survived by riding down a slab of concrete. is it true? a new discovery channel

documentary finding the first time the sur cher himself. we'll show you that interview and get a check on the weather when "way too early" comes back. we have a breaking news story to tell you about. apparently, a plane crashed into the world trade center here in new york city. it happened just a few moments ago. we have little information available at this point in time. [ cat 1 ] i am not a vegetarian...

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splenda makes the moment yours. welcome back to "way too early." a live picture of a sleepy times square. let's get a check of the bert from todd santos. >> it's cool out there, too.

i want to mention one thing off the coastline, tropical storm leslie is about to make land fall. 70-mile-per-hour tropical storm. notice behind it the clear sky activity. a beautiful situation across the east coast. back toward new york and boston, clear skies and dry air in place. temperatures dropping into the 30s. saranac lake dropped to 32 last night. 55 in new york. 53 to boston. beautiful conditions toward d.c. today. we are going to hang on to this for a good stretch of the week. buffalo, temperatures in the mid-70s. we'll see the temperatures climbing over the next couple days. this is the coolest morning of the next few. in florida, the boundary pushing down toward miami. focal point for showers and thunderstorms. a number of us waking up to cooler temperatures. a great afternoon and showers in

the southwest. willie? >> 55 in new york. thank you so much. monday night football was back with a doubleheader. chargers and raiders in the west coast night cap. tied at three. phillip rivers buys time in the pocket. hits malcolm floyd. nice catch there. chargers take the lead. the raiders, this was a special team nightmare. the back up snapper gives him a low snap. can't get the kick off. another raiders punt later in the quarter. the snap is good. protection, not so much. leads to another chargers field goal on that block with san diego up nine. fourth quarter, the raiders solved this, right? nope. this time the snap doesn't reach. wow, ground ball. the chargers take over. chargers score nine points. they beat the raiders in an ugly

one, 22-14. earlier in the night, something nor beautiful, the ravens take on the bangles. first quarter, ravens drive it inside. rice slashes in. seven-yard touchdown, ten-point lead there. they look good on offense. joe pumps right, throws left. in between two defenders. they reviewed it, it was a catch. 17-3, ravens there. tried to get something going. dalton floats one into the arm. ed reeves getting it done. 34 yard. in the process, the nfls all time leader in interception return yards. ravens, boy a lot of people p k picking them to go to the super bowl. joe, 299 yards and a couple touchdowns.

tennis, it was an epic for the men moved monday. murray defeeding jokovic. the first british man -- to win a grand slam singles title. tied the record for the longest u.s. open title at 4:54. one point lasted 55 strokes. murray's win is the first grand slam win. it comes after winning the gold medal for the olympics in his country. the reds facing the pirates trying to make up ground. the reds are good. not a lot of people talking about them. they should be. a little flair. no mans land. look at second baseman brandon phillips going to get it. spectacular catch there. pick up in the 14th inning. ryan ludwig can't quite make the

play. the winning run comes around to score. the reds win, 4-3 to move nine and a half games up in the nl central. the pirates fall back in the wild guard. gonzalez kept rolling for the nationals yesterday. they don't have straussburg, buff they have that guy. gonzalez struck out six, allowed one run in six innings of work. the nationals have the best record in baseball at 87-54. coming up on "morning joe," the jromney campaign -- a new washington post poll helps the romney case. we'll show you the numbers and get the state of the race with the "morning joe" crew. when we come back here, was the 9/11 surfer real? could a man survive the collapse of the world trade tower by

floating down a piece of debris? the discovery channel found the man. details when "way too early" comes back. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100 calories? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. nah. [ dennis' voice ] i bet he's got an allstate agent. they can save you up to 30% more by bundling your policies. well, his dog's stupid. [ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds. are you in good hands?

as it plays back in my memory bank, it appears to be surreal and in slow motion because i was having a hard time coming to grips with what we were seeing. >> this is a major development.

the federal aviation administration shut down all air traffic nationwide. this country has been mobilized in terms of air travel today. we don't know where it goes from here. >> i later said that to get through that morning and that day and all the days that followed took everything that i knew as a journalist, as a husband, as father, as a human being. >> that is, of course, tom brokaw recalling what it was like to report the news on that morning of september 11th, 2001. today is the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 civilians and resulted in the united states fighting in two wars in the middle east. tell your friends 6,570 members of the united states military, most of them under the age of 30 have died fighting in the wars of iraq and afghanistan in addition to the lives lost including civilians, the

financial costs of the wars to the united states is staggering, amounting to almost $4 trillion. in the hours after the collapse of the world trade center, news outlets reported the story among firefighters. an emergency room doctor survived a fall. the man had a name. the country, you remember, clinged to that story. it wasn't long before we learned the story wasn't true. the man identified as living to tell about an 86 story plunge was in the base. all along. a new discovery channel documentary airing tonight shows there was a 9/11 surfer, as he became known. he tells his story for the first time tonight. he fell from the 22nd store of the north tower and lived to tell about it. here is how he remembered the moments before the fall.

>> i remember staring at that large free standing wall that was there. it was a fire that was right at the base of that or right on the other side. actually started feeling the heat from the fire. i wanted to regain some sense of control in my life. and, you know, you know, i was ashamed to say, but i thought of taking my own life at that point only because -- not because i wanted to die, it was the last thing i wanted to do. i didn't want to die by burning alive. the two of us decided we were getting nowhere where we are around the bottom of the pile, so we picked a point, the highest point of what remained the north tower and decided we

were going to scale, get up there and work our way down and figure that might be the best bet to find survivors. as we got up further and further, we had the looming remains of the north tower hovering over us. >> our job as firemen is to rescue people. if we showed up unable to do the job, we felt we let ourselves down. we weren't going to do that. we were going to continue until we did what we were trained to do. we agreed, we are going keep going and find somebody. we kept pushing and we found the spot. >> we had no idea whether he was fire or civilian or what he was. it really didn't matter. the fact we saw an individual up there after what we climbed through and the position he was was nothing short of miraculous.

>> it looked like he was in a medieval castle, sitting there in broad daylight. i can remember, clear as day, it was blue skies and he was sitting on top of the pile by himself. >> we said we got it from here. we're going to get you out of here. >> describing what it was like to wake up after the fall. how did he survive the fall from the 22nd floor? the discovery channel explains it all in the 9/11 surfer. it airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern time, 7:00 central. he'll join us today on "morning joe" to tell us his story. still ahead, why are you awake? texts and e-mails are next. you. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada...

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